He noted her tense and then too heard the footfalls. There were two sets. One set was very heavy. It wasn’t Amy returning. Bara pushed the diary into the study carrel shelf and handed Colin the dagger. He placed it in the inside pocket of his coat just seconds before Courtney appeared. Courtney wasn’t alone. She’d brought muscle—a large serious-looking man in a dark suit. Colin took hold of Bara’s hand and pulled. They ran down the nearest aisle. As they rounded the end, she looked to see how close Courtney was in pursuit. Strange! Courtney and her muscle weren’t following. She had her eyes closed and was chanting.

They skidded to a stop in front of the ancient elevator. Colin pushed the button insistently. He needn’t have. It was just arriving. It jerked loudly to a stop. A rusty door slid open with complaint. Oh my God! There are two of them!

From the elevator stepped the identical twin to the man who’d come with Courtney. Without hesitation, he took their collars in his gargantuan hands. They struggled in his grip but with no success. He led, slash carried them back to where Courtney calmly waited. Letting go none too gently, he shoved them at the study carrel. He then stood protectively next to Courtney. His twin stood on her other side.

Where had Courtney found these men? 1-800-dial-a-goon? They certainly weren’t residents of Windfall. These men Bara would have remembered seeing. They wore all black and had cookie-cutter hair—short, light brown, and parted on the side. Their eyes were hidden behind dark glasses. Colin was as tall but didn’t come close to either’s bulk, a bamboo among oaks. They were at least a foot taller than Courtney. They showed no emotion but a warning was clearly given. We can and will hurt you.

Courtney wore her customary pink, a long coat and a silk scarf around neck. Underneath no doubt was the metal locket containing the amber. Despite her fine clothes, she looked worn. She wore no makeup. Her hair was un-styled and pulled back in a simple ponytail. Her blue eyes were rimmed with the bruises of fatigue. Black magic must be tiring, Bara thought ruefully.

“You need to come home,” Courtney said in her too-sweet voice. “Your father’s very worried. He has the entire Sheriff’s Office looking for you.”

“What’s with these guys, then?” Colin asked. “Since when do cops come in matching, king-sized pairs?”

Courtney narrowed her eyes and studied him. Her mouth formed a small smile. Colin flushed, but then he gathered his courage and met her gaze. He was defiant.

“You should come with us too,” she added, still so sweet, sweet as honey, thick as tar.

Colin straightened his normally bent shoulders and came to his full height. Under other circumstances, he’d have been impressive. “We aren’t going anywhere with you,” he told her.

There was a low rumble, low and intense as thunder. The sound had come from the two men. They’d stood like zombies Courtney had conjured to do her bidding. Tree trunk arms, which had been folded across barrel chests, dropped and hung. Their fists were clenched. Neither man would have had a problem folding Colin up like an ironing board and—with as much ease—toting him out of the library. They were definitely outmatched.

Bara didn’t want to go. She felt the same defiance as Colin, but with the physical strength of the men and Courtney’s powers, it would have been like doing battle with a jet fighter and two tanks, armed only with a well-meaning garden rake. And wasn’t that was what they needed anyway, to get Courtney on her own, to get the locket from her neck? They had the dagger.

Colin with more courage than sense stepped forward. Bara put out her arm and shot him a meaningful look. Her hand rested on the dagger in his inner pocket. “We should go with them,” she told him. “We need to talk this out with my stepmother … alone. We can do that back at the Lavender House.”

Colin felt the weight of the blade next to his torso. He understood. Bara turned to her stepmother.

“We’ll go with you,” she said.

The men motioned and Colin and Bara started walking. Courtney and her entourage followed. They left the stacks and started up the stairs. The rungs creaked from the strain. It was a relief when they reached the top and entered the foyer. They passed an empty front desk. No Ms. Korey. Where had she gone? Bara shrugged. It hardly matter. What help could a librarian be against her stepmother and her monsters anyway?

One of the men passed by, opened a side door, and waited for everyone to pass through. Outside the sun was up, but thick clouds shut out most of its light. A black SUV with tinted windows was parked next to the stone steps. They were ushered inside without protest. Courtney hadn’t hired twins but triplets. Another giant sat in the driver’s seat. How many of them are there? Bara shivered at the thought of an army of thickly muscled zombies existing just to do her stepmother’s bidding. Courtney joined the driver in the front seat. Bara and Colin were sandwiched with the other two in the back.

They pulled away from the library. Amy hadn’t returned from the food run and would never know what had happened, but then there may have been a flash of pink disappear behind a bush. Her coat? Maybe? The SUV drove out of the square and joined the light traffic of Windfall Boulevard. Moving like an oil spill on a woodland pond, the shiny black car made its way through the autumn leaves and past the mansion of the Grande Oaks District.

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